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<h1>Boost Header Policy</h1>
<p>Header files are the place where a library comes into contact with user code
and other libraries.&nbsp; To co-exist peacefully and productively, headers must
be &quot;good neighbors&quot;.</p>
<p>Here are the standards for namespace boost headers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Many of
these are also reasonable guidelines for general use.
<ul>
  <li>Headers should have a .hpp (lowercase) filename extension.&nbsp;</li>
  <li>Wrap the header in #ifndef guards so that multiple inclusion is
    benign.&nbsp; Use a naming convention that minimizes the chance of clashes
    with macro names from other's code.&nbsp; The <a href="#Sample header">sample
    header</a> uses the Boost convention of all uppercase letters, with the
    header name prefixed by the namespace name, and suffixed with HPP, separated
    by underscores.</li>
  <li>Wrap the header contents in a namespace to prevent global namespace
    pollution. The namespace approach to pollution control is strongly preferred
    to older approaches such as adding funny prefixes to global names.&nbsp;
    Libraries which are designed to work well with other Boost libraries should
    be placed namespace <tt>boost</tt>.</li>

  <li>Make sure that a translation unit consisting of just the
  contents of the header file will compile successfully.

  <li>Place the header file in a sub-directory to prevent conflict with
    identically named header files in other libraries.&nbsp; The parent
    directory is added to the compiler's include search path.&nbsp; Then both
    your code and user code specifies the sub-directory in <tt>#include</tt>
    directives.&nbsp; Thus the header <a href="#Sample header">sample header</a>&nbsp;
    would be included by <tt>#include &lt;boost/furball.hpp&gt;</tt></li>
  <li>The preferred ordering for class definitions is public members, protected
    members, and finally private members.</li>
  <li>Include the boost/config.hpp <a href="../libs/config/config.htm">configuration
    header</a> if there is a need to deal with compiler or platform
    configuration issues.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="Sample header"></a>Sample Header</h2>
<pre><tt>//&nbsp; Boost general library furball.hpp header file&nbsp; ---------------------------//

//&nbsp; (C) Copyright Your Name 1998. Permission to copy, use, modify, sell and
//&nbsp; distribute this software is granted provided this copyright notice appears
//&nbsp; in all copies. This software is provided &quot;as is&quot; without express or implied
//&nbsp; warranty, and with no claim as to its suitability for any purpose.

//&nbsp; See http://www.boost.org for updates, documentation, and revision history.

#ifndef BOOST_FURBALL_HPP
#define BOOST_FURBALL_HPP

namespace boost {

//&nbsp; Furball class declaration&nbsp; -----------------------------------------------//

&nbsp; class furball
  {
    public: 
&nbsp;     void throw_up();
    private:
      int whatever;
&nbsp;&nbsp;};&nbsp; // furball

} // namespace

#endif&nbsp; // BOOST_FURBALL_HPP</tt></pre>
<h2>Coding Style</h2>
<p>The alert reader will have noticed that the <a href="#Sample header">sample
header</a> employs a certain coding style for indentation, positioning braces,
commenting ending braces, and similar formatting issues.&nbsp; These stylistic
issues are viewed as personal preferences and are not part of the Boost Header
Policy.</p>
<hr>
<p>Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" s-type="EDITED" s-format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->02 October, 2003<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="38549" --></p>

<p>© Copyright Beman Dawes 1998</p>
<p> Use, modification, and distribution are subject to the Boost Software 
License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying file <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">
LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">
www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)</p>

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